Articles by Join Or DIE

The children of white middle-class, college-educated parents, Hugh Green and Turner Jenkins are just the kind of kids everyone would expect to be stepping out into the world one sunny June day, bachelor’s degrees in hand. But they both veered from the traditional American educational route.

One decided that a bachelor’s was never going to be enough, while the other concluded it was unnecessary.

Once the hallmark of an educated and readily employable adult, the bachelor’s degree is losing its edge. Quicker, cheaper programs offer attractive career route alternatives while the more prestigious master’s is trumping it, making it a mere steppingstone…

Airports and border crossings across Canada are being wired with high-definition cameras and microphones that can eavesdrop on travellers’ conversations, according to the Canada Border Services Agency.

A CBSA statement said that audio-video monitoring and recording is already in place at unidentified CBSA sites at airports and border points of entry as part of an effort to enhance “border integrity, infrastructure and asset security and health and safety.”

As part of the work, the agency is introducing audio-monitoring equipment as well.

“It is important to note that even though audio technology is installed, no audio is recorded at this time. It will become functional at a later date,” CBSA spokesman Chris Kealey said in a written statement. But whenever that occurs, the technology, “will record conversations,” the agency said in a separate statement in response to questions from the Ottawa Citizen…

Via RT: Hornady Manufacturing Company, an American maker of ammunition and hand-loading components has decided to cash in on current zombie terror. Zombie Bullets are designed for those who want to be…

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson said Tuesday night that he is running as a third-party candidate because he has a message to convey: “Politics be damned.”

“The ‘pie in the sky’ notion” is to win the race, Johnson told The Daily Show. He also noted that he’ll appear on ballots alongside President Obama and Mitt Romney in all 50 states in November.

“Lots of opportunity to change the world a little bit,” he said, describing his campaign. “I have seen nothing but increased crowds, increased appetite for what I have to say.” Comedy Central host Jon Stewart described being a libertarian as two halves of a friendship necklace — half Republican, half Democrat, according to the policies that traditionally appeal to each part — coming together to make a whole heart. Johnson agreed.

States are sounding the alarm over a federal policy that would require them to overhaul their systems for issuing driver’s licenses, arguing it’s a massive unfunded mandate that will be incredibly difficult to implement.

If you think you’ve heard this before, you are right. In 2005, following a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission, Congress passed the REAL ID Act. The law was designed to shore up the security of state-issued identification cards in an effort to thwart terrorists and others who use fake IDs to facilitate their crimes. Fast-forward seven years and REAL ID has yet to be fully implemented. Now, as another deadline approaches, states are once again scrambling to meet it and requesting more flexibility. But should they really be concerned?

Federal officials have consistently delayed REAL ID implementation to give states more time to comply. The most recent delay came in March 2011, and today the deadline for states to come into “material compliance” with the law is Jan. 15, 2013. For practical purposes, however, it’s even sooner: States must provide final documentation to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by Oct. 15. State officials say they’re taking this deadline seriously, despite the feds’ track record…

Is history repeating itself? “Although most Bilderberg annual meetings are held in Europe—France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Denmark, England, Scotland, Norway—this US election year they’re again gathering at the Westfield Marriott Hotel in…

Reports Declan McCullagh on cNet News: The FBI has recently formed a secretive surveillance unit with an ambitious goal: to invent technology that will let police more readily eavesdrop on Internet and…

Ron Paul is the candidate that continues to be ignored by the mainstream media, but he is still in the game. The Texas congressman and his supporters continue to push towards the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, but many doubt Paul’s delegate strategy will give him the GOP nod. So what can we expect from Paul at the RNC? Brian Doherty, senior editor at Reason.com, joins us with more on Paul’s new strategy heading to the RNC.

There was a ban on propaganda? “Propaganda that was supposed to target foreigners could now be aimed at Americans, reversing a longstanding policy,” writes Michael Hastings at BuzzFeed Politics:

An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned.

The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee’s official website.

The tweak to the bill would essentially neutralize two previous acts—the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987—that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns…

Opponents of a U.S. law they claim may subject them to indefinite military detention for activities including news reporting and political activism persuaded a federal judge to temporarily block the measure.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan ruled in favor of a group of writers and activists who sued President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Defense Department, claiming a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law Dec. 31, puts them in fear that they could be arrested and held by U.S. armed forces.

The complaint was filed Jan. 13 by a group including former New York Times reporter Christopher Hedges. The plaintiffs contend a section of the law allows for detention of citizens and permanent residents taken into custody in the U.S. on “suspicion of providing substantial support” to people engaged in hostilities against the U.S., such as al-Qaeda.

Via the National Security Archive at George Washington University: More than year after the National Security Archive sued the CIA to declassify the full “Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation,”…

Eighteen-month-old Riyanna has been called a lot of things: cute, adorable and now … a suspected terrorist.

She was called that on Tuesday night at the Ft Lauderdale Airport. She and her parents had just boarded a JetBlue flight when an airline employee approached them and asked them to get off the plane, saying representatives from the Transportation Security Administration wanted to speak to them.

“And I said, ‘For what?'” Riyanna’s mother told only WPBF 25 News on Wednesday. “And he said, ‘Well, it’s not you or your husband. Your daughter was flagged as no fly.’ I said, ‘Excuse me?'”

Riyanna’s father was flabbergasted. “It’s absurd,” he said. “It made no sense. Why would an 18-month-old child be on a no-fly list?”